1. Technical Field
Most previous inventions for producing power by means of wheeled vehicle traffic flow are based on wheels actuating conventional pistons in conventional cylinders or actuating other mechanical linkage by various means each employing either the treadle principle or the roller principle.
Wheels per se or the effective weight thereof or the effective weight of other things, including fluids, or the effective force produced by other means, including fuels, acting as external pistons to pressurize directly or indirectly the fluid in cylinders comprising resilient structure, fluid action being achieved by deformation and recovery of the cylinder, have not been previously used for the production of power which is specifically addressed by the present invention.
2. Prior Art
Extant patents based on the treadle principle are:
(1) U.S. Pat. No. 792,839 (Pumping Mechanism) issued June 20, 1905 to J. C. Neathery and J. M. Adams describes a hydraulic pump actuated by vertically-movable train rail sections;
(2) U.S. Pat. No. 2,020,361 (Air Compressor) issued Nov. 12, 1935 to W. H. Johnston describes an air compressor actuated by vertically-movable auto road sections;
(3) U.S. Pat. No. 3,088,417 (Apparatus For Pumping Fluids) issued May 7, 1963 to Curtis D. Johnston describes a hydraulic pump actuated by a rocking platform placed in auto roadways; and
(4) U.S. Pat. No. 3,803,422 (Displacement Hydro Electric Generator Apparatus) issued Apr. 9, 1974 to Frank Krickler describes a hydraulic pump actuated by wheeled vehicles passing over vertically-movable ramps.
Extant patents based on the roller principle are:
(5) U.S. Pat. No. 1,312,131 (Automatic Rail Power) issued Aug. 5, 1919 to Burris M. Morton describes a power generator driven by the motion of shafts journaled adjacent to the train track and actuated by the depressions to horizontal orientations of upstanding arms distributed along the train track, said arms being engaged and depressed by the wheels of passing trains; and
(6) U.S. Pat. No. 3,885,163 (Expressway Power Generating System) issued May 20, 1975 to Charles E. Toberman describes a power generator driven by the rotation of rollers having fins protruding above the surface of auto road sections, said rollers being distributed in auto roadways where they are actuated by impulses from the tires of passing vehicles.
Extant patent based on resilient structure deformed by the weight of passing vehicles is:
(7) U.S. Pat. No. 1,999,661 (Signal Controlling Apparatus) issued Apr. 30, 1935 to Boris V. Nagashev describes a switch control mechanism actuated hydraulically by the deformation of a resilient structure filled with fluid and located beneath resilient (Macadam or concrete) auto road sections.
There is no net flow of fluid in the switch control device of item (7) above, just a pressure wave and/or a fluid oscillation in the segment of conduit joining the impulse and switch stations. Also, in this same category, there are a variety of traffic-responsive fluid-actuated devices; e.g., bell ringers commonly used at auto service stations and other places of business as alerting signals, counters used to determine the number of autos passing a specific location in a certain period of time, the data being used as inputs to various traffic studies, and special shock-absorbing bumps invented to replace conventional hard bumps installed in certain areas to make auto drivers decelerate to safe speeds.
There are several other patented means of recovering energy from vehicles passing, most of which are so similar in principle to those discussed above as to make them redundant. A few, however, are basically different; e.g., one of them discloses an auto-carried electrical system actuated by passage of the vehicle over bumps, in effect saving some of the energy of the shock absorption system, although tire deflection is used.